It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error It's a Wonderful Life ( 1946 ) PG | From $12.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed. Director: a list of 23 titles created 25 May 2012 a list of 30 titles created 28 May 2012 a list of 36 titles created 05 Oct 2015 a list of 41 titles created 9 months ago a list of 27 titles created 4 months ago Title: It's a Wonderful Life (1946) 8.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 5 Oscars.

Another 6 wins & 1 nomination. See more awards » Videos Lion cub and future king Simba searches for his identity. His eagerness to please others and penchant for testing his boundaries sometimes gets him into trouble. Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff Stars: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts. Director: Hayao Miyazaki After inadvertently wreaking havoc on the elf community due to his ungainly size, a man raised as an elf at the North Pole is sent to the U.S. in search of his true identity. Director: Jon Favreau In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind. Director: Andrew Stanton The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman. Director: Charles Chaplin Seventy-eight year old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his home equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.

Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson Stars: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, and 3 more credits » Stars: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's room. Director: John Lasseter While home sick in bed, a young boy's grandfather reads him a story called The Princess Bride. Director: Rob Reiner A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower. Director: Robert Wise The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home. Director: Lee Unkrich After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home. Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich Stars: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould Edit Storyline George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls.

He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity in order to prevent rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from doing so is George's modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. But on Christmas Eve, George's Uncle Billy loses the business's $8,000 while intending to deposit it in the bank. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse, finally allowing Potter to take over the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George, with the promise of earning his ... Written by alfiehitchie James Stewart and Donna Reed in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.

See more » Genres: Rated PG for thematic elements, smoking and some violence | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 7 January 1947 (USA) See more » Also Known As: The Greatest Gift See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Frank Capra filmed a number of sequences that were later cut; the only remnants are rare stills that have been unearthed. A number of alternative endings were considered, with Capra's first script having George fall to his knees saying The Lord's Prayer (the script called for an opening scene with the townspeople in prayer). Feeling an overly religious tone didn't have the emotional impact of family and friends coming to George's rescue, the closing scenes were rewritten. See more » Goofs As Violet walks away from George, Ernie, and Bert, Ernie watches her out the window of his taxi. He stops watching and moves away from the window. In the next shot, he is watching from the window again. See more » Quotes Mr. Emil Gower : I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear Father. Giuseppe Martini : Joseph, Jesus and Mary. Help my friend, Mr. Bailey.

Ma Bailey : Help my son, George, tonight. Bert : He never thinks about himself, God, that's why he's in trouble. Ernie Bishop : George is a good guy. Give him a break, God. Mary : I love him, dear Lord. Watch over him tonight. Janie Bailey : Please, God, something's the matter with Daddy. See more » Crazy Credits A ringing facsimile of the Liberty Bell (without the crack) forms the backdrop for the studio logo, which is Liberty Films, and the opening credits are in a scrapbook with Christmas decorations. The bell reappears before the end credits, and the end credits have a Christmas card picture as a backdrop. See more » Connections This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (1943) (uncredited) (Sydney, Australia) – See all my reviews After strong performances in films such as "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" and "The Philadelphia Story", James Stewart confirmed his status as one of the greats with his performance as George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life". This movie is, without a doubt, the best of all time. "It's a Wonderful Life" is a movie that you can watch over and over again.

It's movie that makes you think, about life in general and how each person makes a difference, and about how great life can be (hence the title "It's a Wonderful Life). Whilst making you think, it also entertains with many light hearted moments, particularly towards the end of the film. The direction, sound and casting in "It's a Wonderful Life" are second to none. Yet it is the fact that almost any person can watch this movie and come away feeling inspired that makes it easily the best movie of all time! A 10/10 without a doubt! 168 of 203 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Clarence, Angel Second Class, From 'It's A Wonderful Life' - YouTube Clarence, Angel Second Class, From 'It's A Wonderful Life' Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 19, 2014 I guess I shouldn't complain.

At least the writers made Clarence into an angel, albeit a very naive one, instead of into a devil or demon. Note: I don't place ads on my videos, but sometimes the copyright owners do. The ads can be closed after being read. Category Every Time a Bell Rings an Angel Gets His Wings - It's a Wonderful Life (9/9) Movie CLIP (1946) HD - YouTube Find out why Close Every Time a Bell Rings an Angel Gets His Wings - It's a Wonderful Life (9/9) Movie CLIP (1946) HD Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Oct 9, 2011 It's a Wonderful Life movie clips: BUY THE MOVIE: Don't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: CLIP DESCRIPTION: George (James Stewart) learns a valuable lesson, that no man is a failure who has friends.

FILM DESCRIPTION: This is director Frank Capra's classic bittersweet comedy/drama about George Bailey (James Stewart), the eternally-in-debt guiding force of a bank in the typical American small town of Bedford Falls. As the film opens, it's Christmas Eve, 1946, and George, who has long considered himself a failure, faces financial ruin and arrest and is seriously contemplating suicide. High above Bedford Falls, two celestial voices discuss Bailey's dilemma and decide to send down eternally bumbling angel Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), who after 200 years has yet to earn his wings, to help George out. But first, Clarence is given a crash course on George's life, and the multitude of selfless acts he has performed: rescuing his younger brother from drowning, losing the hearing in his left ear in the process; enduring a beating rather than allow a grieving druggist (H.B.

Warner) to deliver poison by mistake to an ailing child; foregoing college and a long-planned trip to Europe to keep the Bailey Building and Loan from letting its Depression-era customers down; and, most important, preventing town despot Potter (Lionel Barrymore) from taking over Bedford Mills and reducing its inhabitants to penury. Along the way, George has married his childhood sweetheart Mary (Donna Reed), who has stuck by him through thick and thin. But even the love of Mary and his children are insufficient when George, faced with an $8000 shortage in his books, becomes a likely candidate for prison thanks to the vengeful Potter. Bitterly, George declares that he wishes that he had never been born, and Clarence, hoping to teach George a lesson, shows him how different life would have been had he in fact never been born.

After a nightmarish odyssey through a George Bailey-less Bedford Falls (now a glorified slum called Potterville), wherein none of his friends or family recognize him, George is made to realize how many lives he has touched, and helped, through his existence; and, just as Clarence had planned, George awakens to the fact that, despite all its deprivations, he has truly had a wonderful life. Capra's first production through his newly-formed Liberty Films, It's a Wonderful Life lost money in its original run, when it was percieved as a fairly downbeat view of small-town life. Only after it lapsed into the public domain in 1973 and became a Christmastime TV perennial did it don the mantle of a holiday classic. CREDITS: TM & © Paramount (1946) Cast: Ward Bond, Frank Faylen, Charles Halton, Herbert Heywood, Eddie Kane, Todd Karns, Milton Kibbee, James Stewart, Karolyn Grimes Director: Frank Capra Screenwriters: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra, Jo Swerling, Philip Van Doren Stern, Michael Wilson WHO ARE WE?

The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. Made by movie fans, for movie fans. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MOVIE CHANNELS: 6 things you probably didn't know about 'It's a Wonderful Life' | MNN - Mother Nature Network MNN.com > Lifestyle > Arts & Culture 6 things you probably didn't know about 'It's a Wonderful Life' Even if you've seen the Christmas classic 100 times, we bet you didn't know that ... well, just keep reading. 79 ZUZU AND GEORGE: You can see Karolyn Grimes, who played Jimmy Stewart's daughter, at a festival in New York. (Photo: ZUMA Press) You know the story: Angels, bells, “Auld Lang Syne,” a depressed and partially deaf savings-and-loan manager who tries to end it all only to be treated to an epiphanic retrospective of his life courtesy of a bumbling trainee-seraphim named Clarence.

Whether it warms your heart or you find it entirely too saccharine, Frank Capra’s 1946 film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” like Mariah Carey’s Christmas album or five additional pounds, is pretty darn hard to avoid during the holidays. This year, settle down with a mug of hot cocoa , a slice of your Aunt Enid’s fruitcake (the do-goodery thing to do) and try watching the Christmastime TV staple with these six fascinating “It’s a Wonderful Life” factoids in mind. You may never look at Henry F. Potter (or Alfalfa) the same way again … Cary Grant, Alfalfa and a big Christmas card George 'Spanky' McFarland and Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer way before a grown-up Switzer had a small role in this Christmas classic. (Photo: © Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved) “It’s a Wonderful Life” is based on “The Greatest Gift,” a 1939 short story written by Philip Van Doren Stern.

After spending several years trying to sell his story to publishers with no success, Stern self-published his work and sent it to 200 friends as a 21-page Christmas card in 1943. RKO Pictures wound up getting a hold of “The Greatest Gift” and bought the rights to the story with Cary Grant pegged as the star. As they tend to do in Hollywood, things fell through and the project languished before acclaimed director Frank Capra came on board in 1945 and named Jimmy Stewart as his leading man in the role of suicidal do-gooder, George Bailey. Jean Arthur, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Dvorak and Ginger Rogers, who called the character “too bland,” were all said to be in the running for the role of Mary Hatch Bailey. Donna Reed, an actress who went on to become the ultimate upper-middle-class TV housewife, ultimately secured the role. And another interesting casting note: That’s a grown-up Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer in the small role of Freddie, Mary’s obnoxious date in the film’s famous dance floor-turned-swimming pool scene (and yes, that pool exists at Beverly Hills High School).

“It’s a Wonderful Life” was one of Switzer’s few post-“Our Gang” adult roles as he shifted his attention to hunting-dog breeding, and was killed in 1959 at the age of 31 after being shot in the groin in a drunken dispute over $50. It’s not a wonderful box office return You’d think that given its “totally beloved by everyone” status, “It’s a Wonderful Life” would have been embraced by both critics and the public alike immediately after its release. Moviegoers must not have been feeling all that sentimental in December 1946 because that wasn’t the case at all. The film received generally mixed reviews — it did, however, garner five Academy Award nominations but won none — and was somewhat of a box-office flop, failing to recoup its $3.7 million cost (it made $3.3 million during its initial run). Sure, not an epic financial and critical failure on par with “Ishtar,” “Gigli” or “Santa Claus: The Movie” but a disappointment nonetheless. And get this: Out of the 400 films released in 1947 (it was technically released on Dec.

20, 1946, so that it could be considered for the Academy Awards but went into general release on Jan. 7, 1947), “It’s a Wonderful Life” placed 26th in box office revenues, one spot ahead of another dripping-with-cheesy-sentiment Christmas classic, “Miracle on 34th Street.” In the years following its release, “It’s a Wonderful Life” fell somewhat into obscurity only to re-emerge on the scene and receive some serious loving during the 1970s and '80s when it began appearing, somewhat relentlessly, on television during the holiday season. In 1990, the nearly 45-year-old film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress. Will the real Bedford Falls please stand up? Seneca Falls, in New York's Finger Lakes Region, is one of the towns claiming to be the real Bedford Falls.

(Photo: The Real Bedford Falls ) In name, the fictional burg of Bedford Falls is popularly thought to be a combination of Bedford Hills, a hamlet within the chichi Westchester County, New York, town of Bedford (home to Martha Stewart and a host of other high rollers that don’t quite share the proletarian woes of George Bailey) and Seneca Falls, a more working-class village in New York’s Fingers Lakes region near Rochester. But which town, Bedford Hills or Seneca Falls, is the true inspiration for Bedford Falls? The tourism bureau of Seneca Falls is banking on the fact that they’re the real deal. In fact, Seneca Falls has an entire website, The Real Bedford Falls , dedicated to pointing out the numerous similitudes between the two towns. The evidence is convincing enough (despite road signs in the film pointing to Katonah and Chappaqua which are both in Westchester County in or near the town of Bedford): Frank Capra reportedly visited Seneca Falls in 1945 although no solid proof of this exists; the film references nearby cities like Elmira, Rochester and Buffalo; both are mill towns; and both sport large Italian populations and an abundance of Victorian homes.

Whatever the case, Seneca Falls has certainly embraced its supposed alter ego with the year-old It’s A Wonderful Life Museum and the annual It’s A Wonderful Life Festival with special appearances by the “Bailey Sisters” themselves, Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu) and Carol Coombs-Mueller (Janie). Visitors can book a room at the Hotel Clarence , a recently restored boutique hotel named after, of course, George Bailey’s guardian angel. And it should be pointed out that the actual filming location of Bedford Falls was not anywhere near either Bedford Hills or Seneca Falls: The entire town was erected as an elaborate 4-acre set at the RKO Ranch in Encino, Calif. Let it (faux) snow! Now that we’ve established that the town of Bedford Falls was not filmed on location in some sleepy upstate New York burg during the winter but on a massive studio backlot in the San Fernando Valley during the middle of the summer, you’re probably wondering how Frank Capra made his fictional town look so darned wintry — fake snow and lots of it. And this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill fake snow.

Prior to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” most productions used cornflakes painted white to simulate snowflakes but, as you can imagine, this was a rather loud way to go about it and the dialogue during snowy scenes was usually dubbed in during post-production due to actors stepping on crunchy snowflakes. Capra insisted on recording the sound live during the film’s snow-filled scenes so a new, less disruptive snow made from water, soap and a fire-fighting chemical called Foamite was invented and pumped through a wind machine. A total of 6,000 gallons of this new faux snow solution was used in the film. And although “It’s a Wonderful Life” may have performed poorly at the Academy Awards, the RKO Effects Department received a technical award from the Academy for the innovative stunt snow. The original Bert and Ernie Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie weren't named for the movie's characters. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) Long before fruit-shaped bachelors-for-life Bert and Ernie took up residence in a basement apartment at 123 Sesame Street, there was Bert and Ernie of Bedford Falls fame.

In the film, police officer Bert (Ward Bond) and cab-driving Ernie (Frank Faylen) played good-hearted friends of the Baileys. Neither character showed a predilection towards rubber duckies, pigeons, striped sweaters or unibrows. So did Jim Henson name his Bert and Ernie after Frank Capra’s Bert and Ernie? According to those close to the orange and yellow odd couple, it’s a total coincidence. Clarifies former "Sesame Street" writer Jerry Juhl to The San Francisco Chronicle : I was the head writer for the Muppets for 36 years and one of the original writers on ‘Sesame Street.’ The rumor about ‘It's a Wonderful Life’ has persisted over the years. I was not present at the naming, but I was always positive it was incorrect. Despite his many talents, Jim had no memory for details like this. He knew the movie, of course, but would not have remembered the cop and the cabdriver. I was not able to confirm this with Jim before he died, but shortly thereafter I spoke to Jon Stone, Sesame Street's first producer and head writer and a man largely responsible for the show's format.

(Jon, sadly, is no longer with us either.) He assured me that Ernie and Bert were named one day when he and Jim were studying the prototype puppets. They decided that one of them looked like an Ernie, and the other one looked like a Bert. The movie character names are purely coincidental. I’m dreaming of a red Christmas In addition to getting the thumbs down from many critics and filmgoers in the late 1940s, “It’s a Wonderful Life” received an official mark of disapproval from the FBI, which pegged the poignant film as Communist propaganda thanks to its populist themes and, more specifically, unflattering portrayal of big-city bankers. Reads a section of a 1947 FBI memo titled “Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry”: With regard to the picture "It's a Wonderful Life", [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a "scrooge-type" so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists.

In addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters. [redacted] related that if he made this picture portraying the banker, he would have shown this individual to have been following the rules as laid down by the State Bank Examiner in connection with making loans. Further, [redacted] stated that the scene wouldn't have "suffered at all" in portraying the banker as a man who was protecting funds put in his care by private individuals and adhering to the rules governing the loan of that money rather than portraying the part as it was shown. In summary, [redacted] stated that it was not necessary to make the banker such a mean character and "I would never have done it that way." Despite the FBI suspicions, Frank Capra and the film’s screenwriters (interesting enough, the gleefully unsentimental Dorothy Parker worked, uncredited, on the script) were not among those blacklisted in 1947 by Hollywood as a result of cinema-centric activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

It's A Wonderful Life (1946) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) Background It's A Wonderful Life (1946), originally made for Liberty Films, is one of the most popular and heartwarming films ever made by director Frank Capra. Frank Capra regarded this film as his own personal favorite - it was also James Stewart's favorite of all his feature films. It was actually a box-office flop at the time of its release, and only became the Christmas movie classic in the 1970s due to repeated television showings at Christmas-time when its copyright protection slipped and it fell into the public domain in 1974 and TV stations could air it for free. [Republic Pictures restored its copyright claim to the film in 1993, with exclusive video rights to it. Currently, it can be shown only on the NBC-TV network, and its distribution rights belong to Paramount Pictures.] The film's screenplay (credited as being written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Capra himself, with additional scenes by Jo Swerling) was based on "The Greatest Gift," an original short story first written on a Christmas card by Philip Van Doren Stern.

Uncredited for their work on the script were Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, and Clifford Odets. It is actually a dark, bittersweet post-war tale of a savings-and-loan manager who struggles against a greedy banker and his own self-doubting nature in a small town. Earnest do-gooder George Bailey (James Stewart) recognizes his life as wonderful and truly rich, even in its humdrum and bleak nature, only after suffering many hardships, mishaps and fateful trials (including compromised dreams of youth to leave the town and seek fame and fortune, other sacrifices, dismay, losses and the threat of financial ruin, and suicide). He is given encouragement by a whimsical, endearing, trainee-angel named Clarence (Henry Travers). The story turns Dickensian (similar to A Christmas Carol, although told from Bob Cratchit's point-of-view rather than from Scrooge's) when the hysterical, despairing, and melancholy family man is shown what the small town (Bedford Falls, now renamed Pottersville after the town's evil tycoon) would be like without him.

It's a frightening, nightmarish, noirish view of the world (at Christmas-time) that brings him back from self-destruction. He returns to the idyllic, small-town world that he left, with renewed faith and confidence in life itself. Hence, the film's title: It's a Wonderful Life. The plot of the film was copied in the rags-to-riches fantasy storyline (also with a guardian angel played by Michael Caine) of Disney's Mr. Destiny (1990), starring James Belushi, and in Brett Ratner's The Family Man (2000) with Nicolas Cage. The famous "Pottersville" alternate reality scenes were also referenced in Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future Part II (1989), in which the small town of Hill Valley was transformed into a Las Vegas-like Babylon in 1985, with young Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) in the role of George Bailey. The picture earned five Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (James Stewart in his first film in almost six years), Best Director (Capra), Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing, but won no Oscars.

(It was eclipsed by William Wyler's award-winning The Best Years of Our Lives .) The Story The film's credits are seen in an illustrated storybook of wintry scenes as the pages turn. As the film opens, the setting is the typical, but imaginary American small town of Bedford Falls, somewhere in New York State, identified by a snow-covered welcome sign. It is Christmas Eve. Prayers from friends in Bedford Falls are heard for a man named George Bailey on the verge of suicide. The camera pans over locations in town, identifying where the voices are coming from - Gower Drug Store, Martini's, the local church, one of the homes, Bedford Falls Garage, and George's own home, where his children's voices are heard. The camera shot dissolves slowly upward into the star-filled, dark night sky where two pulsating galaxies of light come into view. Two heavenly angels are conversing together in the film's otherworldly opening. They have heard the prayers for the film's hero, George Bailey (James Stewart), a man overwhelmed by his problems. Every time one of the heavenly voices speaks, the stars twinkle. In this cosmic fantasy sequence, Angel Joseph tells Angel Franklin that they will appoint a guardian angel for George.

But the only angel available is Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), Angel Second Class, a sweet but inept, child-like apprentice angel who hasn't yet earned his wings. The apprentice is summoned, and portrayed as a streaking star that appears before the brighter angelic stars. Before being dispatched, Clarence is told that George is despondent and considering suicide, "throwing away God's greatest gift," his life - he obviously needs angelic assistance. Clarence is promised that if he does a good job, he will earn his wings. Before Clarence is given a chance to become a full-fledged angel and sent to Earth, the heavenly powers show, in flashback, key events and background on George's life from his boyhood, to provide Clarence with important information about why George is so despairing. Bedford Falls comes slowly into focus. It is the year 1919 and young native George Bailey (Bobbie Anderson) is 12 years old - born, raised, and educated in Bedford Falls. George and a group of friends are sliding down an icy hill on shovels onto a frozen pond.

When his younger kid brother Harry (George Nokes) slides past the safe area and plunges into the freezing water at the end of the icy pond, George jumps in after him and saves him from drowning by forming a human chain, but his heroics cause him to catch a bad cold. From the resulting infection, he goes deaf in his left ear. In the afternoons, George works at the local drugstore owned by "old man" Mr. Gower (H. B. Warner). Walking to work with his friends, they stand in awe and watch a horse-driven, hearse-like carriage pass by, carrying Mr. Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), "the richest and meanest man" in the county. At the store, he talks with a flirtatious eight year old Violet Bick (Jeanine Anne Roose) who orders candy at the counter and vies for George's attention. Also there is young Mary Hatch (Jean Gale, or Jeanne Gail), the childhood sweetheart he will eventually marry. Mary orders a chocolate sundae, but rejects George's offer of coconuts on top.

George tells "brainless" Mary that cocoanuts come from Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, and the Coral Sea. Obviously, he wants to explore and see the world, bragging about being nominated as a member of the National Geographic Society. When he bends down in front of her, she whispers into his deaf ear, vowing: "George Bailey - I'll love you till the day I die." She already knows that the boastful George is the only man she'll ever love, but he doesn't hear her. While finishing fixing her order, George discovers a recent telegram to druggist Mr. Gower informing him of the tragic death of his son Robert, due to influenza. Distraught over the news and drinking as a result, the despondent Mr. Gower mistakenly mixes a pill prescription containing poisonous cyanide. Gower gives the order to George for an emergency delivery. Although obedient and diligent, George realizes that the prescription is fatal, but he faces a dilemma - should he deliver it? As he leaves the store, Mary is still sitting at the soda fountain counter, watching him as he dashes off.

Not knowing what to do, young George spots a sign with the words: "Ask Dad - he knows." Young George runs to his dad Peter Bailey (Samuel Hinds) for advice. His father is busy in the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association building, confronting Potter in his office. George's lovable Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell), (Peter Bailey's brother), known for wearing strings around his fingers to prevent absent-mindedness, prevents George from interrupting, but is called away. George enters his father's office and listens to the conversation between his father and Potter. The contrast between Bailey and Potter is clear - Potter wears black, sits in a wheelchair, and is a "hard-skulled," villainous, miserly banker demanding immediate payments and whose consuming goal in life is to destroy the Building and Loan. And Bailey is a champion and defender of the rights of the little man, refusing to foreclose on the mortgages of families in town. Potter insults Bailey: "Are you running a business or a charity ward?" and young George stands up and comes to his father's defense when Potter calls him a failure. His father rushes him out of the office without giving him a chance to ask about the pills.

George returns to the store with the undelivered capsules. Before learning of the mistake, Mr. Gower angrily slaps George's sore ear for disobediently not delivering the order, although the boy describes the druggist's error: "You put something wrong in those capsules. It wasn't your fault, Mr. Gower." When the old man tests the pills and learns the truth, he breaks down and tearfully embraces George, profusely begging him for forgiveness. George promises never to tell anyone about the mistake. The film moves ahead to the summer of 1928. George has grown up into adulthood and as a young man, he finally has his chance to get out of tiny Bedford Falls before entering college. He is about to leave for Europe on an exotic trip aboard an ocean freighter to see the world. He is in a local luggage and bags store purchasing a suitcase. With his hands outstretched, the moving image of George is suddenly stopped on the screen by the angels, as they inspect and comment upon it.

When the flashback continues, George insists that his suitcase must be big enough "for a thousand and one nights with plenty of room here for labels from Italy and Baghdad...." He is presented with a second-hand bag with his name inscribed on it, a present from his ex-boss Mr. Gower. On the streets of town, townspeople kid with him about his upcoming trip. With friends Ernie (Frank Faylen), the taxi driver, and Bert (Ward Bond), the cop [it has been hypothesized that the names for the Bert and Ernie characters on Sesame Street were taken from this film], he calls himself "a rich tourist" and asks to be driven home in style. Just then, George sees another childhood friend, Violet (Gloria Grahame), the town flirt. He compliments her on her summer dress, but she shrugs coquettishly and walks away wiggling her hips, stopping traffic and getting them all to crank their gaze in her direction. George spends his last night - the evening of brother Harry's (Todd Karns) high school graduation, with his parents for "his last meal" at the Bailey home. Behind his father on the wall are George's framed butterfly collection.

His father tells him that Potter, on the board of directors, continues to harrass them. George calls Potter a "money-grubbing buzzard," although Mr. Bailey excuses Potter's miserliness as a sickness of his mind and soul. George has spent four years since his high school graduation working for his father at the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association. George has "it all figured out." His younger brother Harry is to take his place at the Bailey Company for four years while he goes off to college. Mr. Bailey sounds out his "born older" son George about what he wants to do in his future. George boasts about his plans: "Oh well, you know what I've always talked about. Build things. Design new buildings. Plan modern cities." Mr. Bailey also asks about his son's feelings about taking over the Building and Loan. Exuberant about leaving Bedford Falls and traveling in his future, George declines his father's offer to return back home after college to take over the business: "I-I couldn't face being cooped up for the rest of my life in a shabby little office....I'd go crazy.

I -, I want to do something big, something important." His father defends the importance of their business, sacrificing his entire life to altruistically help depositors in his bank and his family: "It's deep in the race for a man to want his own roof, walls, and fireplace. And we're helping him get those things in our 'shabby little office.'" George doesn't wish to demean his father's work, but explains that he wants to get away and achieve financial/worldly success: "I just feel like if I didn't get away, I'd bust." His empathic father demonstrates his understanding. At Harry's 1928 high-school graduation party, George is heartily greeted by old friends including Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson), a recent college graduate. Sam is known for prefacing conversations with "Hee Haw" and pretending to have floppy donkey ears. Violet approaches and offers her dance card to George: "What am I bid?" But George slights Violet when he is interrupted by Mary Hatch's brother Marty Hatch (Harold Landon) - they are all together again for old home week.

Marty suggests that George dance with his "kid sister Mary" to give her "the thrill of her life." Violet reacts with mock surprise as George turns to look for Mary. His tall figure makes its way through the crowd to find her. When he sees the grown-up 18 year-old Mary (Donna Reed), the first time they have met since they were childhood friends, she looks exquisitely beautiful in a close-up and he is visibly impressed with her. Although Mary is listening to an obnoxious suitor named Freddie (Carl Switzer, Our Gang's 'Alfalfa') tell her a boring story about an experience he has had, she immediately turns away and shows an interest and fondness for George. He takes her away from her partner and they go off dancing together after George tells Freddie off. Beginning a heart-warming set of dreamlike sequences, George courts his childhood sweetheart and their love grows. At the party, they enter a Charleston dance contest, while unbeknownst to them, the jealous rival Freddie plots his revenge with a prank. With the turn of a key and the push of a button, the gym dance floor is opened up, revealing a swimming pool underneath.

When the floor separates beneath them, they are so carried away with their hectic Charleston dancing that they don't notice - and they plunge backwards into the pool. Soon, everyone joins them in the water, including the school principal. George and Mary walk home together, returning from the high school dance after falling in the pool and soaking their party clothes. They wear a hastily-thrown together weird assortment of borrowed clothes - George a tight #3 football jersey and Mary a long, loose-fitting bathrobe. They sing an off-key duet of "Buffalo Gals" under the light of a new moon. Then, he sweet-talks her, calling his eighteen year-old date "the prettiest girl in town" while distancing himself slightly. On their way home while strolling along the street, they pause in front of the old deserted Granville house, and the gawky George accidentally steps on her bathrobe belt, the pretended "train" of her dress. She stops so that they can pretend a chivalrous encounter in a dramatic game. As a courtly lady, she extends her hand for a kiss from her courtier. He approaches closer to her, intending to give her a real kiss, but she coyly and slowly turns away from him.

Playful, she walks away and continues to sing "Buffalo Gals." George threatens to hurl a rock through one of the Granville house windows. He wants to make a wish - one that will only come true if he breaks a window. Mary wishes he wouldn't and confesses that she'd like to live in that old abandoned house - a prophetic wish: "I love that old house...It's full of romance, that old place. I'd like to live in it." He throws a rock and his aim is accurate - he breaks a window on the second floor. But then, he loudly describes his "whole hatful" of wishes to see the world and build magnificent buildings: I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Coliseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I'm gonna build bridges a mile long...

Mary interrupts George by picking up a rock (unnoticed at first by self-centered George) and silently makes a wish of her own. [Her wish, learned later, is to live with George someday in the Granville house.] Following George's example, she throws it through another window - and seals their fate. George curiously asks about her wish. For a second time, she replies with a sly smile as her answer, and then turns and continues down the street singing "Buffalo Gals." She explains that if she tells him her wish for the future, it wouldn't come true. George asks about her deepest wishes and then offers her a poetic, imaginative fantasy about lasso-ing the moon and bringing it down to Earth so that she can eat it - it's almost a marriage proposal: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You-you want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon...Well, then you could swallow it. And it'll all dissolve, see.

And the moon beams that shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair...Am I talking too much? A bald, overweight neighbor (Dick Elliott) on a nearby back porch hears their romantic, non-sensical conversation and challenges George to do less talking and try more romantic action: "Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?" Just then, George inadvertently steps on Mary's bathrobe again and she accidentally loses it. She jumps into the hydrangea bushes to hide. Aroused by her predicament, he hesitates to throw her robe to her and teases her in a good-natured way, calling it "a very interesting situation." Mary begs for her robe back as he circles the bush with the bathrobe in his hands. George's imaginative and harmonious contemplation of possibilities with Mary is interrupted when a car roars up the street with Harry and Uncle Billy. He abruptly leaves after receiving the tragic news that his father has had a stroke. The beautiful harmony of their mutual attraction is shattered. The last shot of the scene is a long, sustained close-up of Mary (with a mixed expression of sadness, concern and disappointment). She watches the car drive off. Mr.

Bailey death means that George's dream of traveling abroad to Europe for the summer before college is short-circuited. He must handle the affairs of his father's business in the few months following his father's death. In a meeting of the board of the Bailey Building and Loan Company that gathers to vote on its future and to choose a successor to Mr. Bailey, George listens to Mr. Potter (one of the board members) present a motion to dissolve the Building and Loan Association in a bold-faced attempt to shut it down. Although Potter calls George's father "a man of high ideals," he criticizes Peter Bailey's business sense - he's "not a business man - that's what killed him," maintaining that the company was always a losing proposition. The crotchety old Potter believes that the loan policies of the company only produce: "a discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class." Potter complains about a few idealistic, "starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey (who) stir 'em up and fill their head with a lot of impossible ideas." George delivers an inspired address in defense of his father's character, fighting selfishness and deceitfulness with honesty and decency.

He speaks for the hard-working people of the town, and the way his father made them all better citizens and customers: Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about. They do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book, he died a much richer man than you'll ever be. George is committed to keeping alive the company as the only alternative to allowing Bedford Falls to fall completely under the ownership of greedy and unscrupulous Mr. Potter - the only source for borrowing money.

"This town needs this measly, one-horse institution if only to have someplace where people can come without crawling to Potter." Potter calls George's ideals "sentimental hogwash." The board votes not to sell out to Potter but to keep the Bailey Building and Loan Company under one condition - if George is kept in charge as Executive Secretary to succeed his father. When they suggest that absent-minded Uncle Billy run the company - an unworkable alternative, George realizes his opportunities to go to college and study architecture are closing down, crying: "This is my last chance." But then, he again agrees to sacrifice and sidetrack his personal dreams as a victim of circumstance. He will remain in Bedford Falls to operate the company, inherit the responsibilities of running the loan company, and instead send his younger brother to college, using his own college savings. Over the next four years, George manages the company while his brother attends college in his place. When Harry graduates from college in 1932, he is to come back to Bedford Falls and run the family business.

At the train station, George waits with Uncle Billy for his brother to return from college for the last time - while eagerly clutching travel brochures to Venezuela and the Yukon in his hands. He believes that he can finally be replaced at the company by his brother and turn over the management to Harry - he can, at last, leave Bedford Falls. As the approaching train whistle sounds, George explains the three most exciting sounds in the world: Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles. The two brothers greet each other with overlapping lines when Harry bounds off the train. Unexpectedly, Harry is accompanied by his new bride Ruth (Virginia Patton), and George learns of Harry's promise of profitable work (out of town) in the research business for his father-in-law's glass factory in Buffalo. In a close-up of George's despairing, frustrated and dispirited face, he suddenly falls silent, realizing that he is doomed to stay in town. George is left alone as Harry returns to the train for his luggage. His dreams of escape and adventure are dashed, but he keeps his bitterness and discouragement to himself. “It’s a Wonderful Life”: Occupy Bedford Falls!

- Salon.com Saturday, Dec 8, 2012 12:30 AM UTC “It’s a Wonderful Life”: Occupy Bedford Falls! Think "It's a Wonderful Life" is a sentimental holiday film? It's darker than you remember and speaks to our times Topics: Christmas , Holiday movies , It's a wonderful life , Jimmy Stewart , Life News I must have been 9 or 10 years old. It was Christmas or only a few days before. My parents had taken me along on a final whirlwind of holiday grocery shopping and last-minute gift buying. I was left alone at Tower Records and happened upon a VHS copy of Frank Capra’s holiday classic — and my mother’s favorite film — “It’s a Wonderful Life.” In the spirit of the season, I bought the tape. At home that night, I presented the movie without wrapping or bow to my mother, and we watched it immediately. But when the tape began to roll and the wood-post sign declaring “You Are Now in Bedford Falls” appeared on the screen, it was clear something was wrong. Gone were the familiar white sky, the gray snowdrift on the median, the almost black oak and its ashen limbs reaching out from the background.

Instead there was a pink sky, illuminated as if from behind like a paper lantern, a display of pastels highlighting the snow drift, a landscape washed in peach and ochre. It turned out I’d bought a colorized version by mistake — a Ted Turner project from the late ’80s, it appeared. My mother didn’t stop the tape. I’m guessing, but I bet we watched the movie through to the end — a courtesy to me and an endorsement of my experiment in generosity . But something was missing from my mother’s enjoyment. Though I couldn’t have known exactly what at the time, it was evident that something in Donna Reed’s rosy cheeks, something in Lionel Barrymore’s improbably red nose, violated the original. And it wasn’t just aesthetic, which would have been the case with any colorized black and white. It was philosophical, elemental. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is often remembered, as one New York Times review put it just after its release, as “a parable of virtue being its own reward.” It’s a film designed to please and pander; something to warm your feet by, but not anything to scrutinize too carefully.

Every Christmas it airs quietly in the background of family meals and board games and sibling spats. It’s basically the Westminster Dog Show of American cinema, and it’s taken just about as seriously. And so perhaps you’re thinking it doesn’t deserve much study. But despite the film’s obvious and easy pleasures — the gymnasium floor opening unexpectedly to send Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart spilling into the swimming pool underneath; the cop-and-cabbie duo, Bert and Ernie, leering at Violet, the town flirt, over the hood of the cab; Reed and Stewart’s off-key duet of “Buffalo Gals” — it casts a darker hue on its subject than we often remember. It’s not merely about camaraderie and Christmas and good cheer; it’s also about a crisis of small-town business, the economics of family and society, and debt, labor and the sacrifices and responsibilities of middle-class ambition. As early as childhood, George Bailey dreams big. He subscribes to National Geographic, studies geography and plans adventures. But just as soon as he starts to conceive of a life outside his hometown, he’s held back by debt — both emotional and financial.

In our first encounter with young George Bailey, he and his friends are sledding down a hill onto a frozen pond. After some taunting, George’s younger brother, Harry, screws up enough nerve to shove off. The camera follows him down the slope, across the ice and into a weak spot at the far end, where he sinks into the freezing water. George dives in to save him. But his virtuosity isn’t rewarded, as the New York Times review would have you believe; it’s punished by way of pneumonia and a deaf ear that haunts George through adulthood. (His little brother, by contrast, is later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism in World War II; George was ineligible to serve as a result of his “trick ear,” which he got in saving his brother.) This, his first selfless act, conscribes George to a kind of stewardship that comes to define his adulthood and indeed his life. Over the rest of the film, whenever he does something for others, it is he who shoulders the responsibility (and suffers the punishment) of debt. When young George’s boss at the pharmacy, Mr.

Gower, accidentally fills a local woman’s prescription with poison, he doesn’t reward George for uncovering the mistake. Instead, he boxes George in his deaf ear until it bleeds. And so it goes for most of George’s life. Later in adulthood, once he’s finally ready “[to shake] the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and … see the world,” George’s ambitions are again beset by the burden of his goodwill. Just after George picks up a trunk to last him “a thousand and one nights, with plenty of room here for labels from Italy and Baghdad,” his travels are forestalled by his father’s sudden stroke and eventual death. George Bailey, who “never thinks about himself,” ends up saddled once again to his father’s old business — “this business of nickels and dimes and spending all your life trying to figure out how to save three cents on a length of pipe.” Never mind the fact that he and his brother had arranged for a trade-off that would send George to college for four years while his brother took over his old job at their father’s Building and Loan office.

It’s George in the end, not Harry, who stays, despite his indignation for the job and his growing hatred for Bedford Falls. Even George’s honeymoon is waylaid by the cost of his generosity. He and his fiancée, Mary, are in the car, about to catch a train for New York, when a crowd gathers outside the Building and Loan demanding their deposits back. Rather than let the Building and Loan go bankrupt, George ends up doling out to the townspeople the cash he and Mary would have spent on their vacation. At the end of the day, they’re left with two single bills, and all George gets in return for his selflessness is a cheap imitation of a honeymoon — travel posters on the walls of the drafty, abandoned mansion at 320 Sycamore, a sign that reads “Bridal Suite” tacked to the front door and Hawaiian guitar music on the record player: the hollow emblems of “beautiful places, romantic places, places George wants to go,” but never does.

George and his family eventually take up residence in the old house, despite his earlier protest — “I wouldn’t live in it as a ghost” — the implication being that that’s exactly what he’s becoming the longer he stays in Bedford Falls. Eventually the angel Clarence comes down to show George what life would be like if he were, in fact, a ghost — if, that is, he’d never been born. Without his generosity, the quiet little town (predictably) falls prey to evil Mr. Potter, who replaces the movie house and pharmacy with a juke joint and a strip club. It’s a more exciting town, even though it’s beset by depravity and hedonism. George’s old friends are now alcoholics and misers; his wife is a lonely librarian; his mother is the spinster proprietor of a boarding house. George famously learns from this episode the value of family, the interdependence of good deeds, his own value in society and so forth. Or so we’re told. The lesson actually marks another episode in which George is punished, not rewarded, for his generosity. He’s spent his entire life trying to get out of Bedford Falls.

He finally decides to kill himself, and he stands at the bridge railing, looking out over the icy water below. But his suicide attempt — what Sartre regarded as man’s most autonomous act — fails. The angel Clarence offers George another exchange — this time of one life for another. Clarence throws himself into the river, knowing that George will sacrifice his own life for someone else’s 25 Wonderful Facts About 'It’s a Wonderful Life' | Mental Floss 25 Wonderful Facts About 'It’s a Wonderful Life' RKO Radio Pictures Like us on Facebook Mary Owen wasn’t welcomed into the world until more than a decade after Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life made its premiere in 1946, 70 years ago this month. But she grew up cherishing the film and getting the inside scoop on its making from its star, Donna Reed—who just so happens to be her mom. Though Reed passed away in 1986, Owen has stood as one of the film’s most dedicated historians, regularly introducing screenings of the ultimate holiday classic, including during its annual run at New York City’s IFC Center .

She shared some of her mom’s memories with us to help reveal 25 things you might not have known about It’s a Wonderful Life for the 70th anniversary of its premiere. 1. IT ALL BEGAN WITH A CHRISTMAS CARD. After years of unsuccessfully trying to shop his short story, The Greatest Gift , to publishers, Philip Van Doren Stern decided to give the gift of words to his closest friends for the holidays when he printed up 200 copies of the story and sent them out as a 21-page Christmas card. David Hempstead, a producer at RKO Pictures, ended up getting a hold of it, and purchased the movie rights for $10,000. 2. CARY GRANT WAS SET TO STAR IN THE ADAPTATION. When RKO purchased the rights, they did so with the plan of having Cary Grant in the lead. But, as happens so often in Hollywood, the project went through some ups and downs in the development process. In 1945, after a number of rewrites, RKO sold the movie rights to Frank Capra, who quickly recruited Jimmy Stewart to play George Bailey. 3. DOROTHY PARKER WORKED ON THE SCRIPT.

Getty Images By the time It’s a Wonderful Life made it into theaters, the story was much different from Stern’s original tale. That’s because more than a half-dozen people contributed to the screenplay, including some of the most acclaimed writers of the time—Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, Marc Connelly, and Clifford Odets among them. 4. SCREENWRITERS FRANCES GOODRICH AND ALBERT HACKETT WALKED OUT. Though they’re credited as the film’s screenwriters with Capra, the husband and wife writing duo were not pleased with the treatment they received from Capra. “Frank Capra could be condescending,” Hackett said in an interview, “and you just didn't address Frances as ‘my dear woman.’ When we were pretty far along in the script but not done, our agent called and said, ‘Capra wants to know how soon you'll be finished.’ Frances said, ‘We're finished right now.’ We put our pens down and never went back to it.” 5. CAPRA DIDN’T DO THE BEST JOB OF SELLING THE FILM TO STEWART.

After laying out the plot line of the film for Stewart in a meeting, Capra realized that, “This really doesn’t sound so good, does it?” Stewart recalled in an interview. Stewart’s reply? “Frank: If you want me to be in a picture about a guy that wants to kill himself and an angel comes down named Clarence who can’t swim and I save him, when do we start?” 6. IT WAS DONNA REED’S FIRST STARRING ROLE. Getty Images Though Donna Reed was hardly a newcomer when It’s a Wonderful Life rolled around, having appeared in nearly 20 projects previously, the film did mark her first starring role. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else in the role today, but Reed had some serious competition from Jean Arthur. “[Frank Capra] had seen mom in They Were Expendable and liked her,” Mary Owen says. “When Capra met my mother at MGM, he knew she'd be just right for Mary Bailey.” 7. MARY OWEN IS NOT NAMED AFTER MARY BAILEY. Before you ask whether Owen was named after her mom’s much beloved It’s a Wonderful Life character, “The answer is no,” says Owen.

“I was named after my great grandmother, Mary Mullenger.” 8. BEULAH BONDI WAS A PRO AT PLAYING STEWART’S MOM. Beulah Bondi , who plays Mrs. Bailey, didn’t need a lot of rehearsal to play Jimmy Stewart’s mom. She had done it three times previously—in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts, and Vivacious Lady—and once later on The Jimmy Stewart Show: The Identity Crisis. 9. CAPRA, REED, AND STEWART HAVE ALL CALLED IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE THEIR FAVORITE MOVIE. Liberty Films Though their collective filmographies consist of a couple hundred movies, Capra, Reed, and Stewart have all cited It’s a Wonderful Life as their favorite movie. In his autobiography, The Name Above the Title, Capra took that praise even one step further, writing : “I thought it was the greatest film I ever made. Better yet, I thought it was the greatest film anybody ever made.” 10. THE MOVIE BOMBED AT THE BOX OFFICE. Though it has become a quintessential American classic, It’s a Wonderful Life was not an immediate hit with audiences.

In fact, it put Capra $525,000 in the hole , which left him scrambling to finance his production company’s next picture, State of the Union. 11. A COPYRIGHT LAPSE AIDED THE FILM’S POPULARITY. Though it didn’t make much of a dent at the box office, It’s a Wonderful Life found a whole new life on television—particularly when its copyright lapsed in 1974 , making it available royalty-free to anyone who wanted to show it for the next 20 years. (Which would explain why it was on television all the time during the holiday season.) The free-for-all ended in 1994 . 12. THE ROCK THAT BROKE THE WINDOW OF THE GRANVILLE HOUSE WAS ALL REAL. Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain Though Capra had a stuntman at the ready in order to shoot out the window of the Granville House in a scene that required Donna Reed to throw a rock through it, it was all a waste of money. “Mom threw the rock herself that broke the window in the Granville House,” Owen says. “On the first try.” 13.

IT TOOK TWO MONTHS TO BUILD BEDFORD FALLS. Shot on a budget of $3.7 million (which was a lot by mid-1940s standards), Bedford Falls—which covered a full four acres of RKO’s Encino Ranch—was one of the most elaborate movie sets ever built up to that time, with 75 stores and buildings, 20 fully-grown oak trees, factories, residential areas, and a 300-yard-long Main Street. 14. SENECA FALLS, NEW YORK IS “THE REAL BEDFORD FALLS.” Though Bedford Falls is a fictitious place, the town of Seneca Falls, New York swears that it's the real-life inspiration for George Bailey’s charming hometown. And each year they program a full lineup of holiday-themed events to put locals (and yuletide visitors) into the holiday spirit. 15. THE GYM FLOOR-TURNED-SWIMMING POOL WAS REAL. Though the bulk of the film was filmed on pre-built sets, the dance at the gym was filmed on location at Beverly Hills High School. And the retractable floor was no set piece.

Better known as the Swim Gym, the school is currently in the process of restoring the landmark filming location. 16. ALFALFA IS THE TEENAGER BEHIND THAT SWIMMING POOL PRANK. Though he’s uncredited in the part, if Freddie Othello—the little prankster who pushes the button that opens the pool that swallows George and Mary up—looks familiar, that’s because he is played by Carl Switzer , a.k.a. Alfalfa of The Little Rascals. 17. DONNA REED WON $50 FROM LIONEL BARRYMORE ... FOR MILKING A COW. Though she was a Hollywood icon, Donna Reed—born Donnabelle Mullenger—was a farm girl at heart who came to Los Angeles by way of Denison, Iowa. Lionel Barrymore (a.k.a. Mr. Potter) didn’t believe it. “So he bet $50 that she couldn't milk a cow,” recalls Owen. “She said it was the easiest $50 she ever made.” 18. THE FILM WAS SHOT DURING A HEAT WAVE.

It may be an iconic Christmas movie, but It’s a Wonderful Life was actually shot in the summer of 1946—in the midst of a heat wave, no less. At one point, Capra had to shut filming down for a day because of the sky-high temperatures—which also explains why Stewart is clearly sweating in key moments of the film. 19. CAPRA ENGINEERED A NEW KIND OF MOVIE SNOW. Capra—who trained as an engineer—and special effects supervisor Russell Shearman engineered a new type of artificial snow for the film. At the time, painted cornflakes were the most common form of fake snow, but they posed a bit of an audio problem for Capra. So he and Shearman opted to mix foamite (the stuff you find in fire extinguishers) with sugar and water to create a less noisy option. 20. THE MOVIE WASN’T REQUIRED VIEWING IN REED’S HOUSEHOLD. Though It’s a Wonderful Life is a staple of many family holiday movie marathons, that wasn’t the case in Reed’s home. In fact, Owen herself didn’t see the film until three decades after its release.

“I saw it in the late 1970s at the Nuart Theatre in L.A. and loved it,” she says. 21. ZUZU DIDN’T SEE THE FILM UNTIL 1980. Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in the film, didn’t see the film until 1980. “I never took the time to see the movie,” she told Detroit’s WWJ in 2013. “I never just sat down and watched the film.” 22. THE FBI SAW THE FILM. THEY DIDN’T LIKE IT. In 1947, the FBI issued a memo noting the film as a potential “Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry,” citing its “rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a ‘Scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists.” 23. THE MOVIE’S BERT AND ERNIE HAVE NO RELATION TO SESAME STREET.

Question: What was the angel's name in It's a Wonderful Life?
Answer: Clarence